This application relates to poultry feeders, and, in particular, to a poultry feeder which can operate both in both a shallow fill mode (as with a Hi-Lo®-type of feeder) and in a flood-fill mode (as with a flood feeder).
In large chicken raising operations, the birds are typically owned by an integrator and the farmer raises the birds from chicks to chickens for the integrator. Often, the integrator will dictate to the farmer the type of equipment the farmer should use for caring for the birds, including the type of feeders to use. Currently, there are essentially two types of feeders on the marker. There is a feeder having an adjustable height feed pan, such as the Hi-Lo® feeder available from the Cumberland division of The GSI Group, and flood feeders. In flood feeders, the feeder pan is generally filled with feed. Because the feeder pan is filled, the feed can go stale within the pan. An adjustable height feed pan feeder is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,311,839, 5,462,017 and 5,718,187, all of which are incorporated herein by reference. In these feeders the effective pan depth can be altered by raising a feeder rim as the birds grow from chicks to chickens. The changing of the pan depth allows for the birds to have access to the feed as necessary during their growth, without depositing as much feed in the pan as is required by flood feeders, that is, the feeder can be operated with a shallow fill of feed. The use of adjustable height feed pan feeders thus reduces the amount of feed which may go stale.
Because the integrators often dictate which type of feeder a farmer must use, if a farmer's contract with an integrator is canceled, it may be difficult for the farmer to obtain a new contract with a different integrator that requires or allows the farmer to use the same type of feeder. If the farmer obtains a contract with an integrator that requires different feeding equipment, the farmer will have to replace the feeders currently being used and invest considerable sums of money in new feeders and associated equipment. As can be appreciated, this can cause a significant financial hardship to the farmer, and could even force the farmer into bankruptcy.